AuthorTopic: ANNOUNCING: ZENDRUMDRIVE (Read 21395 times)

Thanks for clarifying all of that, hope I didn't confuse anyone out there. I didn't see anything wrong with how it was setup when I came down. I guess more trials and tribulations to what will work better for the end user. I am going to delete my post so that nobody gets confused with my comments.

And for shipmate Darin, Aye have not forgotten the superb effort you make to support the tribe with Zenedit. When Aye finally get the Jolly Roger Zendrum upgraded Aye will certainly be purchasing your fine software.

Thanks for the shout-out Pyrate!

And in case anyone missed my facebook post, the latest version of ZenEdit now supports the ZendrumDrive, so I got you covered

Aye jumped in this minor discussion to make certain that everyone understands that a) we all be different, with different tastes and different needs, b) that intelligent and rational discussion should never be discouraged, c) to make those unfamilair with Zendrum aware of just how great a company and crew they are d) and too make sure that noone ghets personally insulting with their comments, as that is not necessary to get your point across.

All here be entitled to their opinion. Certainly making polite suggestions to the esteemed Inspector or Drum Wagon or anyone else on the creative team, I'm certain wil be taken seriously and given due consideration. Ye must also remember any development effort requires that the developer draw a line in the sand somewhere or nothing would get built. Improvements, if presented properly, and are of value, can be added in either a future release or as a custom option.

And be warned ye landlubbers and sand crabs, if ye don't play nice, Ye will have to deal with the Olde Pyrate, and Aye have it on good authority, he be one mean SOB.

Hope this helps.

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Pyrate

Logged

Lost at sea with the Jolly Roger Zendrum!Pyrate Factoid: Black Bart Roberts was the most successful Pyrate of the Golden Age. He captured over 400 ships between 1720 and 1722.

.....I'm trying to "break it down for the drummer". It's the guys like me who don't want to learn any of it I'm shooting for!.....

Errr, that would be me! I use the Roland TD-10 for simplicity's sake. Plug and play. After I go and adjust all the internal settings: EQ; Fx; adjust volumes globally, then for each setup; make different kits; assign different channels; on and on... The task of setting everything up using just the Roland module has literally taken me several years, and I am still tweaking virtually every setup almost 3 to 4 times a week! I don't WANT to do this! I want to play, not become a VST geek. I understand the need to tweak everything to get the sounds you want. It just becomes overwhelming at times, and can be very daunting. The problem is not so much "not wanting" to learn, it's a matter of devoting time to it, when I'd MUCH rather devote time to learning songs, practicing, and playing... as well as having some family time, and time for my other interests as well! I don't mean to 'whine', but hey, I have very little down time. I need things like plug and play.

If you can come up with this module with all the sounds I want to have at a high quality, I'm very interested. From just the brush sounds you posted a few months ago on facebook, I was interested. I will be watching the progression of this unit and saving my pennies for someday :-).

Now that the production model details are finished, it's time to start posting more audio and video.I believe that the proof of concept is better made musically than with words and stats.Finally, I get to PLAY! Woohoo!Stay tuned.

nZenEar

My thoughts on this, and with all due respect -- I don't want to sound judgmental at all, so forgive me if it reads that way.

For the types of in-depth technical concerns that you have, it is my opinion that you maybe should just be building your own system or using a laptop based one.

What David has done here is create a pre-made "black box" solution that you simply plug and play. I would treat it as a "module" that happens to use VSTs, as that's essentially what he's created. It's solid, reliable and you can just turn it on and immediately start rocking out, without needing to know what's inside. Your support contact is Zendrum corp, not Microsoft, so I wouldn't worry about the OS. Yes, XP has been end-of-lifed. Yes, future hardware will eventually not work in XP. But you don't need to worry about that because the ZendrumDrive is a closed system with components (both hardware and software) that are supported by the vendor (Zendrum).

Our course if you wanted to "void the warranty" and open the box it and start modifying it -- well, then that takes me back to my first thought -- you should be building your own

This is more for the guys (IMHO) that don't want to mess with putting together a laptop, install software, deal with audio interfaces and ASIO drivers, etc.. and just want an off-the-shelf solution that is easy to use and sounds great with little tinkering.

Precisely correct, Darin.One button push toaster with no learning curve whatsoever.Boy, it sounds good and doesn't cough in the middle of a show.Now I can focus on playing the music, not worrying about the gear.The perfect match for the Zendrum- AT LAST!(it only took 20 years...)Thank you all for your responses!David

No offense taken but,That's crazy! I've been singing the praises of this thing since it's coming was announced last year. My concerns are valid. These are the same questions I ask when buying a PC/laptop ...and I have no intention of building one of those either. As far as installing software and ASIO drivers....even a computer illiterate like me can do that.

See fellas, I have already spent thousands of dollars on " the next best thing/ plug and play" gear and frankly most are not completely as great as the hype. Some come very close, and even though I don't have the skills to build something such as this, I still have a good Idea about its capability and how it will perform by the specs it boasts. Those things alone sometimes persuade my purchase.

By "cracking this open" Are you saying that if I want to run something other than the VSTs you provide...it will void the warranty? I'm not quite sure I understand. That doesn't sound prudent. You don't mention a disk drive...so how am I to load say, Superior 2.0 and validate my software if I don't open this thing up? And concerns of viruses on the internet are valid also. I just want to know how my investment will be protected when I do these things.

I like the product, however more info will be needed to be put forth for most of the demographic I come from.(edrummers). I bet there will be more than one customer out there besides me who will want to know the same things I've asked. Even the least tech savvy customers will most likely not just take your word for it. Most will want hard facts and viable spec sheets. Mainly because they have been trained to look at these things over the years because they really have no other idea how such technology works.

Maybe I was mistaken. I had no idea this was just something to compliment the Zendrum. Thought It would be a great tool for the edrummer as well.

So fulrmr/All,

I get the questions. No particular comments on whether they are appropriate or not but putting the host computer/installed application questions aside for a moment do you have a technical spec (sample rates/resolutions and number of samples supported and/or audio output specs for instance) that you look for in a system such as this. Not that I can answer those question for the ZENDRUMDRIVE but I'm curious as to what the users of this type of equipment look for.

edocsmith

The debate over modules and software will no doubt continue long after we're gone, but kudos to Haney and company for their efforts and constant desire to think "outside the box". I'd love to swing through Atlanta one of these days, and check out the shop. My Drummsticks as good as they are, never worked as well as the Zendrum; (Someday I'd love to remake one with Zendrum goodies!) Meantime, keep up the good work! -Doc

Thanks Doc,Futureman and I were talking about how far things have come.Can you imagine if someone had handed any one of us a one button push VST in a roadcase 20 years ago?We've all been through a lot of time and money and braincells to get to this point.But now I know how good it can be...And should have always been.I've been jumping up and down and waving my hands in the air about this topic long enough to just go on ahead and do it the right way- because nobody else would listen.We all needed help with it, not just me.No more excuses.Zendrumdrive is VST for the real world.

Not much bigger than the guts of the Zendrumdrive, just oriented vertically rather than horizontally. You could put it in a shallow flight case, or better yet find a DJ case that it can mount in flat so that the screen faces up. All the power of the Zendrumdrive but with a touch screen to give it less of a "black box" feel! I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat. Far less fragile than my laptop rig too.

Anyhow, I just thought that PC he built was cool. Stumbled on it randomly enough while researching some ZenEdit 2 bits.